Working stations at which mounting and/or machining operations are carried out with coordination between those operations and a feed movement of the workpieces in a stepwise manner, can utilize workpiece carriers and linear transporters for these workpiece carriers in accordance with DE A 43 20 501 and DE A 196 03 253. In these systems all of the working stations have essentially the same stroke independently of whether the particular operation practiced at the station is a fast operation, for example, a stamping or punching operation for producing plug components, or a slow operation, for example, gluing or soldering of a component in place. In order to increase output, the mounting and/or working operations for a slower process can be carried out in parallel to one another, but this complicates the travel of the workpieces and requires that the workpieces be shifted out of sequence into parallel paths and subsequently returned to the processing line. The need for diverting paths of workpieces and combining the paths of workpieces, complicates the travel and itself has a tendency to limit the productivity of the apparatus.